Electronic dart games are well known from Jones et al. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,057,251 and Zammuto 4,561,660. These patents relate to the use of "safe" darts made with a slender flexible plastic tip which is virtually incapable of piercing human skin and unlikely to cause damage when hitting objects other than the dart board. Jones et al. introduced the "safe" darts and a dart board divided into an array of target plates with a large number of closely spaced holes for securing darts thrown at the board. The impact force of a thrown dart displaces a target plate and momentarily closes an associated switch to electrically indicate a dart hit. Zammuto improves on the game by using a solid rubber damper sheet for biasing target segments and a matrix switch of imprinted Mylar sheets to increase reliability in scoring.
Electronic dart games of the foregoing type usually have sophisticated displays for displaying the score of each player, a temporary score for the player who is then shooting, and other indicators directing the advance of the game from throw to throw and player to player. Certainly darts can also be played without such sophisticated displays, such as the conventional steel tipped dart game which is the typical British pub game. However, there the players have to be very concerned about what score is hit with each dart, and must themselves determine the score of each player, typically kept track of on a chalk board on the wall, and remember the advance of the game from throw to throw and player to player.
It is believed that the popularity of electronic dart games resides not only in the increased safety which inures to the flexible tipped dart, but also to the sophistication of the game electronics in keeping track of the score and the advance of the game quite without excess attention from the players. As a result, players without significant skill in darts can and do employ electronic dart games as not only a sport but also light amusement.
People with sight impairment, such as blind people, have been known to adapt physically to target games such as darts by use of a rather keen sense of direction coupled with a known physical position with respect to the dart target. However, because of the complexities which can be involved in dart games relating to the score of any individual player and the advance of the game, it has not been possible for blind players, even when they have trained themselves to accurately throw darts at the target face, to play the game independently because of lack of ability to perceive the rather sophisticated visual scoring devices on the machine.
Electronic games are also known which include voice synthesizers which allow the machine to "speak" verbal messages to a player and/or his audience. It is believed that the most sophisticated "speaking" electronic games have developed in the electronic pinball game area, which are relatively continuous games where the score continues to advance depending on targets hit by a continuously rolling ball. Thus, while pinball games have been adapted to announce certain game key events, it would be difficult if not impossible to continuously appraise the state of the game by audible announcements.